Yuki Watari

is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Saudi Women's Premier League club Al-Nassr. She played college soccer for the UT Southern FireHawks and led the team to the NAIA championship in 2021, earning NAIA national player of the year honors. She began her professional career with FC Juárez in 2023.

Early life

Watari was born in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, to Brazilian parents, and has an older brother. She began playing football at age nine and soon joined the Urawa Red Diamonds academy. She received several scholarship offers to play college soccer in the United States but did not have good enough TOEFL scores for many of them and ended up accepting an offer at the NAIA–level Martin Methodist College (later the University of Tennessee Southern). She scored 19 goals in 18 games as a sophomore in 2020, earning first-team All-American honors after leading the NAIA with 8 game-winning goals as a sophomore in 2020.

Watari scored 17 goals and led the NAIA with a career-high 26 assists in 23 games in her junior year in 2021, being named the Mid-South Player of the Year. She was named the NAIA Player of the Year by United Soccer Coaches. She was named team captain in her senior year in 2022. Her career totals of 77 goals and 69 assists were the most in program history.

During college, Watari also played for Nashville Rhythm FC in the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) alongside several other Japanese-born college soccer players.

Club career In July 2023, Watari signed her first professional contract with Liga MX Femenil club FC Juárez. On 29 July, she scored two goals in her professional debut in a 3–2 loss to Atlas. She was the first Japanese-born player to play in the Liga MX Femenil and the second Japanese player overall after Akemi Yokoyama. She played in 22 league games and scored 8 goals in her only season with FC Juárez.

In June 2024, Watari joined USL Super League club Tampa Bay Sun before the league's inaugural season. The following month, she tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and was expected to miss the entire campaign. Shortly before she was set to return in June 2025, she tore the ACL in her other knee and remained sidelined as the Sun won the inaugural USL Super League championship. In June 2026, after two injury-tested years in Tampa Bay, she was released without having made an appearance and thanked by the Sun for the "positivity and the energy you shared with this club".

After returning to the pitch with West Florida Flames in the WPSL, Watari joined Saudi Women's Premier League club Al-Nassr in July 2026.

Honors and awards

UT Southern FireHawks NAIA women's soccer championship: 2021 Mid-South Conference: 2020, 2021 Mid-South Conference tournament: 2021

Tampa Bay Sun USL Super League: 2024–25

Individual United Soccer Coaches NAIA Player of the Year: 2021 First-team NAIA All-American: 2020, 2021, 2022 Third-team NAIA All-American: 2019 First-team All-Mid-South: 2020, 2021, 2022 First-team All-SSAC: 2019 Mid-South Player of the Year: 2021 SSAC Freshman of the Year: 2019 NAIA championship MVP: 2021